The Monon Railroad (alternate timeline)
This is the "what if" timeline which will go with the "What if" HO scale layout I plan to build in the future, which covers real Monon history, up to July 31, 1971. This is where the timeline differs from what really happened. Instead of the L&N buying the Monon, the exact opposite happens and it goes on from there. This will tie into my Wabash Valley Railroad timeline, in spots, as the two lines are allies in this version of the Monon story. So I present the modern Monon Railroad! 1847: The New Albany and Salem Railroad is organized, with James Brooks as president. 1854: The NA&S trackage stretches from the Ohio River (at New Albany) to the Great Lakes (at Michigan City). 1859: The overextended and struggling NA&S is renamed the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad (LNA&C). April 30, 1865: The LNA&C becomes one of twenty railroads to haul Abraham Lincoln's funeral train, from Lafayette, Indiana to Michigan City, Indiana. 1873: The LNA&C Railroad is reorganized as the Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railway. 1881: The LNA&C consolidates with the Chicago and Indianapolis Air Line Railway, and the trackage of the new division is soon extended to reach into its namesake cities. July 1, 1897: The LNA&C is reorganized as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway. 1932: The 300 pound (136 kg) Monon Bell is first presented as the trophy of the annual football matchup between DePauw University and Wabash College. 1946: John W. Barriger III becomes President of the Monon, bringing aggressive plans for modernization. June 29, 1949: Final day of steam locomotive service, as the Monon becomes one of the first Class I railroads to fully convert to diesel motive power. January 11, 1956: The CI&L officially adopts its longtime nickname, Monon, as corporate title. 1959: The Monon's passenger service between Chicago, Illinois and Indianapolis, Indiana is discontinued. By 1965, only the Thoroughbred remained, with its single daily roundtrip from Chicago to Louisville. September 30, 1967: Final day of regularly scheduled passenger train service on the Monon. July 31,1971: The Monon purchases the Louisville and Nashville railroad and merges it into the system. Locomotives from the L&N that had numbers belonging to current Monon locomotives renumbered with Monon letters placed under the new number. August 14, 1971: Monon painting of Ex-L&N locomotives begins. July 10, 1976: The Monon purchases the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, to save the once profitable lines from losing all profitability. This move would extend the Monon west of the Mississippi River for the first time, and would save the Rock Island's lines from losing all profitability. November 1, 1980- Monon Railroad purchases the Seaboard Coast Line (Family Lines) May 3, 1983: The Monon creates the Hoosier State passenger train, joining the Alaska Railroad as the only railroads to have their own passenger service on their lines, instead of Amtrak. June 11, 1984: Last L&N painted locomotive gets Monon paint. The last Rock Island painted locomotive is also repainted the same day. January 15, 1986: The last order of SD50s ever made by EMD arrives for the Monon Railroad. The five units, all painted in the freight scheme, begin service immediately. March 31, 1989: The first order of seven EMD SD60s arrives, along with the order of 6 GE C36-7s. September 12, 1989: A signal malfunction causes a northbound mixed freight to collide head-on with a southbound empty grain train, near Monon, IN. The ALCo leaders are retired and later scrapped, after being deemed unrepairable. June 7, 1991: The Monon receives its lone order of five General Electric C40-8s. The locomotives are immediately placed into service. May 23, 1992: The Monon railroad is declared one of the most successful amongst railroads based in Indiana and Illinois. June 2, 1992: The Monon receives One of Santa Fe's GP60Ms and two GP60Bs to test and see if they wanted any of their own. June 8, 1992: The Monon sells a large portion of its former Rock Island trackage to the newly founded Iowa Interstate Railroad, to help the company get started. This would make a new ally for the Monon, which included continued trackage rights for many trains that remained under the Monon name. November 26, 1992: The Monon's order of four SD70Ms arrives, and are immediately put in service, while most ot the remaining ALCo diesels in operation are retired and either sold for scrap or sent to short lines for reuse. Only three ALCo built diesels remain on the railroad. November 29, 1992: The ATSF GP60M and Bs are sent back to their own rails. After much talk, it was decided that the Monon would order 15 GP60Ms and 25 GP60Bs from EMD. 1993: Conrail ends their runs to Logansport, IN and hands their operations over to TP&W, creating a new alliance for the Monon, with a connection to the TP&W at Montecello, Indiana and Reynolds, Indiana. July 11-18, 1993: The order of GP60Ms and GP60Bs arrives. October 1, 1994: The first seven of the Monon' s order of twelve GE C44-9Ws arrives.The Monon also recieves the first three of an order of ten SD70MACs from EMD. Some SD40s are retired, while others are renumbered, to make room for all the new arrivals. December 21, 1994: The Monon operates a joint Christmas special with the Wabash Valley Railroad and the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway. This would be the first of many to come. May 13, 1996: A school bus runs around the crossing gates at Montecello, Indiana and gets slammed into by a southbound manifest All children on board the bus live and the bus driver is fired by the area school district and charged with 31 counts of child endangerment. July, 4, 1996: The Independence Limited makes it's first annual run between Chicago and Indianapolis. In an agreement between the Monon and TP&W, each line would take a turn at hosting the train from this point on. August 1998: Following Surface Transportation Board approval, the Monon and NS take control of Conrail. February 4, 1999: The Monon retires a large number of older EMD and GE models as more locomotives from their orders of SD70s and C44-9Ws arrive. June 1, 1999: The Monon and Norfolk Southern begin operating their portions of Conrail. July 9, 2001: The Monon's 4 new P42DCs arrive and are put into service alongside their small fleet of F40PHs on the Hoosier State and the newly created Midwest Zephyr, which would run between Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. September 11, 2001: Like shortline ally TP&W, the Monon shuts down completely because of the terrorist attacks from that morning. November 2, 2003: One of GE's Evolution Series demonstrator locomotives arrives for testing. This would determine whether the Monon would order some to replace more of their aging Dash 7 models. May 12, 2004: The Monon purchases 15 ES40DCs from GE, after deciding they liked how the demonstrator locomotive ran. 15 more Dash 7 GEs are retired and sold to western shortlines July 11, 2004: The first six of a 20 locomotive order of SD70ACes arrives and are put in service. This would spell doom for six the eight SD38-2s the Monon owned, which were retired by the end of the year. Two were kept for local service and spare road power. December 15-22, 2005: The first Toys for Tots train runs. March 7, 2006: The Hoosier State has to detour through Lafayette, IN after a minor derailment on the section of the line between Chicago and Indianapolis, between Monon and Montecello. May 23, 2006: The first order of ten ES44ACs from GE arrives All previously ordered ES40DCs are upgraded to ES44DCs, with plans to slowly convert them to AC power. July 30, 2006: The Monon retires all but 4 of its remaining SD20s. These would be kept for locals and as extra road power. January 7, 2008: The Monon announces its very own heritage program. The first paint scheme used is the Louisville and Nashville freight paint scheme, followed by the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line schemes, then the Rock Island. March 4 2014: The new order of 15 ES44ACs arrives as one large power move, via the T&PW, from Norfolk Southern in Logansport, Indiana. May 13, 2014: The Monon purchases the Michigan City to Kokomo section of the old Nickel Plate Road IMC right-of-way. This purchase also comes with a deal to move trails built on the RoW to be moved parallel to the rail line. Plans are to work with Norfolk Southern to complete the Kokomo to Indianapolis section, for joint operations. Rumors start to surface of a Nickel Plate Road heritage unit, but are quickly denied, with NS' heritage unit cited as the only one that would exist. June 5, 2014: The Monon announces a joint excursion venture with Norfolk Southern and the Toledo, Peoria and Western. This program would use steam locomotives from NS , plus Pere Marquette 1225 on the Monon. July 26, 2014: The Monon makes a bid to purchase the assets of CSX Transportation as the former Class 1 railroad had filed for bankruptcy in mid-June and its owners had put the railroad up for auction to the highest bidder. Other railroads making bids include Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, Canadian Pacific, BNSF, and Union Pacific. July 29, 2014: The auction closes with the Monon Railroad top bidder. With this latest acquisition, the Monon strengthens it's position as one of the Big 4 Class 1 railroads in the United States. Plans for heritage units of the CSX family of railroads are already being planned at this point. August 12, 2014- With people afraid to fly in planes after the tragic airline disasters of the summer, Amtrak sees a major boom in passengers on many of their premier trains across the nation, as does the Monon's Hoosier State. Many trains require extra cars to handle the extra passengers. October 1, 2014- The Hoosier State expands from 5 times a week to 7 days a week, two times a day, to meet the demands for increased passenger capacity. January 23, 2015: The Monon leases the Florida East Coast railway's fleet of SD70-M2s and several SD40-2s, as the FEC's fleet of new ES44C4s is delivered. Rumors spread that the Monon will buy the units, should the FEC wish to sell them.